Local SEO Study – Blackpool Restaurants

In the first of what will be a series on Local SEO, we look at the Google performance of the restaurant category in Blackpool. Why Blackpool? We’re based there and our local expertise allows us to offer some context with our analysis.

If you’d like a similarly detailed analysis of your business sector, feel free to contact us.

Further down this report we’ll be offering analysis of the most popular keywords used by customers looking for local Restaurants in Blackpool on Google right now, and show ranking positions (at the time of writing). Firstly, we’ll explain what SEO is, look at some best practise tips for local restaurant websites and discuss what Google Guidelines say you should be doing.

What Is SEO?

SEO, or search engine optimisation, is the practice of improving websites and web pages so that they rank higher on search results pages for relevant keyword search phrases. The most popular search engine online is Google, with over 80% of searches being made on this platform. Google provides us with guidelines on how to build and present a business website to give it the best possible chance of ranking high. There are hundreds of factors in the algorithm it uses. More information here.

Why Should Restaurants Bother With SEO?

Top restaurants are always booked up weeks in advance. But, if your restaurant is not, then a little marketing budget spent correctly on SEO will go a long way. For example, do you think you would get more bookings and walk-in traffic if you were top of Google for the keyword search phrase ‘indian restaurant blackpool’? Of course you would!

Most Restaurant Websites in Blackpool Need Improvement

We find that, apart from the big restaurant chains, very very few Blackpool restaurants have set their websites up properly. This is why we see the search rankings dominated by the likes of Tripadvisor and others. There are plenty of opportunities here for local restaurant businesses to rank higher using just a few simple techniques.

5 Local Restaurant SEO Best-Practice Guidelines

1. Make sure your Restaurant is showing on Google Maps, Bing Places, Tripadvisor, Instagram, Twitter and Facebook! These are all free, so make good use of them.
2. Add your business details to as many other local citation directories as possible. Think Yell, Yelp, Find-Open, Cyclex, Thomson Local, 118-118 and countless others. These all offer free listings.
3. Ensure that your Name, Address, Phone Number and Opening Hours are consistent on all platforms, including your website, social media and directory listings.
4. Make sure that your website loads quickly and is mobile-friendly. With most of your customers searching for you on mobile devices, having a slow website can have a negative effect on your ranking positions. Plus it needs to resolve the searcher’s intent quickly and clearly. Your address, opening hours and phone number should be prominent, with a photo gallery, reviews and your menu easily accessible.
5. Reviews are essential!! Studies show that on average, 61% of restaurant customers have looked at reviews before visiting. Moreover, around 34% of customers have chosen a restaurant based solely on reviews.

You Have To Live With Online Reviews!!

Like it or not, online reviews are uber-important to local restaurants. The three best review platforms happen to be free in Google, Tripadvisor and Facebook. Trust us, you don’t need to subscribe to any paid-for review platforms!

Schema Code for Restaurant Websites

Introduced over the last few years, Schema.org provides a consistent method of ‘marking-up’ restaurant websites so that Google and Bing can categorise them and rank them much easier. Surprisingly, over 95% of restaurant websites contain none of this code and are significantly losing out to those who do. We regard Schema as essential to any website build, but not everyone has caught on. Obviously, this is great for our clients!

Correct Schema markup can result in Google revealing ‘Rich Snippets’ in Google Search listings. These can be a section of FAQs, events, offers, your own menu and more.

Your website homepage should be marked up as ‘Restaurant’ with your opening hours, type of food, your menu, price range, opening hours, contact info, and location. You can also mark-up pages with special offers and events. Wait. You’re not doing this already? You need to contact us to sort this out, asap!

Adam Mullender Photography

Top Keyword Searches for Blackpool Restaurants – October 2019

Here we go! These are the top search phrases used by customers looking for restaurants in Blackpool… As we love data, the full list comprises almost 200 keywords or search phrases relevant to Blackpool restaurants, all with a monthly search volume of over 10. You can view the full list at the bottom of this article. We have omitted any business-specific search phrases, as we expect those restaurants to be No.1 on Google for that term anyway.

This is typical of what we do before starting any SEO project for any business in any sector. We obtain this data from analytics software which costs us several thousand pounds a year. Well worth it, as you will see!

Search Intent

Crucial to keyword research for SEO is consideration of the user’s ‘search intent’. We consider that a search for ‘chinese restaurant blackpool’ is being performed most likely by someone who wants to go for a meal at a Chinese Restaurant.

With Blackpool being one of the UK’s top tourist destinations (miles of beaches, home to one of Europe’s biggest roller coaster parks, 3 piers, a zoo, The Blackpool Tower etc.) many searches are undoubtedly being performed by the millions of tourists who flock to the town from March through to November.

Keyword = The search phrase used by your potential customer on Google

Volume = The average monthly search volume over the last 12 months

CPC = The average ‘cost per click’ for this keyword on Google Ads

SERP Features = Rich Snippets or Schema Data that appear in the search results.

What Does This Data Tell Us?

Let’s take a look at the top 20 searches by monthly keyword volume…

General Restaurants

For the highest volume keyword, “blackpool restaurants” you will see that the top positions on Google search are taken by Tripadvisor, VisitBlackpool, The Culture Trip, Open Table and local newspaper The Blackpool Gazette. The top-performing actual restaurant is Las Iguanas. Well done to them. Guess what? They have Schema Code set up on their website! But, as a big chain with a huge marketing budget, we should expect this. They do have some deficiencies on their site though, which could easily be exploited by a savvy local competitor.

Cuisine Specific Restaurants In Blackpool

“indian restaurant blackpool”

This keyword has some 350 searches per month. Top of the pile of local restaurants is The Indian Orchard, but they do come only 4th, behind Tripadvisor (positions 1 & 2) and ThreeBestRated. Looking at Indian Orchard’s page, we can see that they have not correctly set up their SSL Certificate, nor are they using Schema Data. The website loading speed is also very slow, which will also mark them down on Google. So, there is a huge opportunity here for Indian Orchard or one of their competitors to hugely increase their ranking on Google.

“italian restaurant blackpool”

Again, some 350 searches per month. Tripadvisor (again) takes the top two spots but in position #3 is La Fontana, which happens to be one of our personal favourites in the town. Sadly though, their website is nowhere near as well prepared as their cuisine! Schema is missing! So, an opportunity is here for La Fontana to overcome Tripadvisor, or for another Italian Restaurant in the town to take their spot in Google search.

“chinese restaurant blackpool”

With some 250 searches per month, this is another top keyword any decent Chinese restaurant should look to dominate in the town. Sadly, again the behemoth Tripadvisor take positions 1 and 2. In position #3 though is Michael Wan’s Mandarin Chinese Restaurant. Well deserved, as it is superb. Problems though, as the SSL Certificate is not correctly implemented and no Schema Code is being used. Once again, opportunities are available for competitors.

“posh restaurants in blackpool”

With 200 searches per month, this keyword is wide open to exploit. Once again the top positions are taken by the behemoths, but our local winner, Kwizeen, has no Schema on a fairly poor quality website. Plenty of opportunity here!

The Top Keyword Search Phrases for Blackpool Restaurants

Written by Chris Giles, FCIM (Fellow of The Chartered Institute of Marketing)
CGain Web Design & SEO

About The Author
Chris Giles is the owner and founder of the web design and SEO Agency, CGain Web Design & SEO. Chris contributes regularly to several leading websites with his specialist insights on SEO.